texas trip - days 11-13

Wednesday we went to the park again, and the trip was very successful.  Jed and Camryn played on the seesaw and the swings again, and Camryn even drank some of her bottle with the help of the swing:

After eating, Camryn played for a little while longer and then happily fell asleep in my arms.  I was very glad that we could stay at the park through her nap, partly because that was one less nap that I had to put her down for at home (and keep Jed quiet through), and partly because Jed had found a ridiculously fun and ginormous puddle to play in:

He also had fun chasing the birds across this huge field nearby, yelling "Eagles, I'm coming to get you!"  There were, in fact, no eagles.  Just some crows (or other ugly black birds).

Thursday we had another fun morning at the park, and this time Jed tried pushing Camryn in the swing. He learned some lessons about actions-reactions when the swing would come back and hit him in the face!

My sister came over, and we tried out some activities.  We used painter's tape to create a spider web (with the intention of throwing balled-up newspaper pages at it so they would stick to the "web"), but the painter's tape wouldn't stay.  So we used some duct tape to get it to stick to the wall better, but the web wasn't sticky enough to hold anything.  So THEN we swapped the painter's tape out for duct tape entirely, and STILL the newspaper balls wouldn't stick!  Maybe I'm just a terrible thrower.  Sarah had success throwing balled-up pieces of painter's tape at it, so at least that tape was useful for something!

But Jed was a little bit scared of the web we had created, and had no interest in throwing anything (he is so hard to predict sometimes!  Why would a toddler NOT want to throw things?).  Instead, he started gathering objects to place on the lowest "strand" of the web, to see what would stick (the answer was: everything).  Not the original intent of the activity, but hey - who says you have to follow the rules all the time?

We also played with bubbles, which Jed LOVED.  He can't actually blow any (though he desperately wants to and tries SO hard), so this time I gave him a straw to help shape his lips and concentrate the stream of air.  It worked beautifully, and I was only mildly worried that he would fall and shove the straw down his throat (a mother's worst nightmare! ack!).  He thought nothing of this risk, of course, and had a fabulous time.  I was so glad that Sarah was around to help him blow bubbles so that I could be on photography duty and take lots of really fun pictures!

That night we Skyped with Scott and his dad (who was in DC for a day for some meetings), which made Jed very homesick.  He started asking over and over again to fly on an airplane and go home to see Daddy and Grandpa.

I don't actually remember what we did on Friday, because I don't have any pictures from the day!  But that night we took one picture to send to Scott, to tell him that we loved and missed him.  We were both feeling a little homesick after 2 weeks of being away!

Pooh Bear missed Scott as well